Cop's Alleged Role In Drug Deals Is Told

July 23, 1999|By Todd Lighty, Tribune Staff Writer.

A former Chicago policeman vacationed in Mexico with a drug dealer, brokered cocaine transactions while on duty and covered up the theft of drugs from a supplier by staging a bogus arrest, according to an account from a co-defendant who pleaded guilty Thursday.

Jesus Felipe Cuevas told federal prosecutors that he began working for a drug ring allegedly controlled by former gang crimes officer Joseph Miedzianowski during the winter of 1997--around the time Cuevas said the two men and their families vacationed together in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

As Cuevas entered his plea Thursday, Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian Netols revealed some of the government's evidence against Miedzianowski, including snippets of thousands of hours of secretly recorded telephone conversations that he said captured Miedzianowski talking about drug purchases and plotting to steal drugs.

In a series of conversations in October and November, the FBI allegedly captured Miedzianowski on tape talking with Cuevas about stealing a kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of cocaine from an unsuspecting drug supplier.

Cuevas pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge before U.S. District Court Judge Blanche Manning and agreed to cooperate with authorities in their ongoing investigation of veteran Chicago police officers allegedly involved in drug trafficking.

In exchange for his cooperation, Cuevas will likely avoid a life prison sentence. Instead, prosecutors said they will recommend a sentence of about 11 years.

Cuevas, 30, described in court documents as a gang member and major drug dealer, is the ninth of Miedzianowski's 13 co-defendants to plead guilty.

One of Miedzianowski's lawyers, Ralph Meczyk, said Cuevas had a fertile imagination.

"Next thing you know they'll pin the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa on Miedzianowski," Meczyk said about the government's latest accusations. "They'll say, `Miedzianowski did it.' "

Miedzianowski, 46, who resigned from the police force in June, is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he allegedly ran a Miami-to-Chicago drug ring.

Miedzianowski, according to federal court documents, also has been accused of funneling guns to a gang in its street war with a rival gang and aiding the drug ring by identifying undercover cops, describing undercover police vehicles and revealing the names of confidential informants working with law enforcement.

As part of the continuing investigation, two other veteran police officers--John Galligan and Jon Woodall--have been taken off street duties and reassigned to administrative jobs at police headquarters, sources said.

Sources have said the federal government was focusing on at least five Chicago cops for allegedly shaking down or robbing drug dealers of money and cocaine, and planting drugs on suspects--charges similar to those in the Austin and Gresham Police Districts nearly three years ago.

Cuevas, a high school dropout, admitted in his plea agreement that he allegedly helped Miedzianowski purchase more than 20 pounds of powder cocaine in 1997 and 1998.

For the first time, prosecutors revealed parts of taped conversations they said show Miedzianowski and others involved in drug transactions.

In one recorded conversation, Miedzianowski told Cuevas: "The guys that got those radios. . . . They wouldn't give you the radio up front to let a guy use for a week?"

According to court documents, Miedzianowski was asking Cuevas whether the drug suppliers would give them cocaine on credit.

Netols, the federal prosecutor, told Manning that Miedzianowski often substituted the code word "radio" for "cocaine" in his phone conversations in negotiating drug buys.

Yet, Netols wryly told the judge, when agents raided Miedzianowski's North Side home they did not find a "stockpile of radios."

On the FBI wiretaps, according to court documents, Cuevas and Miedzianowski discuss the plot to steal drugs from a supplier last October because they needed money for a second trip to Mexico.

"Do you know what we got to do before that, a geezo," Miedzianowski told Cuevas.

A "geezo" was Miedzianowski's favorite term meaning to rip off or set up someone, according to court documents.